Why 2023 will be the year of the climate culture wars

The major stories in 2023 will almost all be tied to how businesses react to increased investor and political attention from both sides of the climate spectrum, writes David Callaway

The nascent world of climate finance is moving from one of pledges, promises and greenwashing to one of actual investments, products, and dealmaking (Getty Images)

Scott Tew has been going to the United Nations global climate summits for more than a decade, but he noticed something different the last few years, especially in Egypt last month at the Cop27 summit.

The crowd had been overtaken by business people. Not just CEOs of renewable energy firms, but investors, venture capitalists, investment bankers. And oil executives. Lots of oil executives. More than 600 in fact.

“We’ve not really seen this before,” said Tew, head of sustainability at Trane Technologies, an Irish-domiciled maker of industrial heating and cooling systems. “Most of them were there trying to show solutions in the market that are working.”